OLYMPIC NOTES

THE ROLE OF DEFRANTZ: IOC VP Anita DeFrantz, on
yesterday's N.Y. Times report that she was aware of some of
the Salt Lake City 2002 bid committee's transgressions: "I
can tell you they [SLOC execs] would send me a list of who
was going to visit and ask me to call and encourage them.
... I would never and will never mortgage the Olympic
movement for a bid city. Period. Check my record. It's
not me" (WASHINGTON POST, 3/12). IOC VP Dick Pound said he
hadn't seen the report implicating DeFrantz. Asked if he
would press DeFrantz for an explanation, Pound said, "I'm
sure somebody will talk to her now that it's come out."
Will that be him? Pound: "Probably" (TORONTO STAR, 3/12).
OTHER NOTES: IOC member Phil Coles has "retired" as the
Australian Olympic Committee's Dir of Int'l Relations.
Coles was "one of the IOC members named in the report" by
the SLOC's board of ethics, and he cited the controversy's
toll on his "health as the reason behind the decision"
(AROUND THE RINGS, 3/12)....Toronto's bid to host the 2008
Olympics took "another blow" when Dick Pound "quietly quit
his post" on the committee board last December. One source:
"It's another setback for Toronto's bid. Why wouldn't it
be? One of the key IOC members will not be part of it, at
least for the time being" (TORONTO STAR, 3/12)....IOC
President Juan Antonio Samaranch said that former U.S.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and European Union
"architect" Jacques Delors "have been asked to help redesign
the troubled" IOC (TORONTO STAR, 3/12)....A survey of 1,000
Americans for USOC sponsor Blue Cross & Blue Shield,
conducted last week, showed "nearly three-fourths" of
respondents had a favorable impression of the Olympics, "but
nearly half said their view had soured since the bidding
scandal in Salt Lake City erupted." Blue Cross VP/Marketing
Christopher Molineaux said the survey "helped persuade the
company that Americans are able to separate their feelings"
about the Games "from the people who run them" (WSJ, 3/12).